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Native Bread by Piatro Hlebka starts as follows:

The fire burns. Round the trench is massing
For home yearn our countrymen,
And the partisan young lasses
Bake and dry flat loaves again.

May that bread be blessed ever,
Bread which in the field they make,
Bread unsalted, bread unleavened,
For our weighty needing baked.

Why is this referred to as "unleavened bread"? Is this is a reference to the Passover story?

Edit: As I understand it, this poem was set during World War 2 and is told from the perspective of a Belarusian soldier.

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  • I think we need a little more context. Where is the poem set, and in what situation? I have no real evidence for this, but if you're baking bread "in the field" and you don't have time to wait for it to rise, it will be unleavened.
    – Peter Shor
    Apr 27, 2022 at 15:15
  • This is, of course, the same (symbolic) reason that Passover bread is unleavened ... the Jews didn't have time to let bread rise after Moses got the Pharaoh to agree to let them leave.
    – Peter Shor
    Apr 27, 2022 at 15:29
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    @PeterShor This poem was, as I understand it, set during World War 2 and is from the perspective of a Belarusian soldier.
    – EJoshuaS - Stand with Ukraine
    Apr 27, 2022 at 15:33
  • @PeterShor You're correct, I shouldn't add significant details in the comments. I edited.
    – EJoshuaS - Stand with Ukraine
    Apr 27, 2022 at 15:54
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    it's definitely no reference to the Bible, Heaven forbid, in the ussr! Just a bread made without yeast and salt. Btw I believe I found the ru translation: "Вовеки будь благословенным, Хлеб трудных партизанских дней, Неквашенный, непосоленный, Хлеб Белоруссии моей", however, the last line doesn't correspond at all.
    – Andra
    Apr 27, 2022 at 19:44

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